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‘Not going to feel sorry for ourselves’: Somber Michigan locker room looking to regroup after Penn State loss
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Michigan had a chance to make a statement on Saturday night. A road game against a ranked Penn State team in a hostile environment would’ve been the perfect opportunity to silence the critics and wash the bad taste of a 35-14 loss to Wisconsin out of it’s mouth from a few weeks ago.
Instead, the Wolverines fell short. The Nittany Lions jumped out to an early 21-0 advantage, a hole that was just too deep to climb out of for Michigan. Despite a resilient battle, Jim Harbaugh and company were on the wrong end of a 28-21 decision.
Michigan dropped to 5-2 on the year and essentially out of the B1G East race. It was a pretty somber locker room after the game, as this team had B1G title and College Football Playoff aspirations this year.
While the disappointment was real, the Wolverines aren’t about to pack it in.
“We’re not gonna sit down and feel sorry for ourselves,” said defensive lineman Kwity Paye, in a video posted by Angelique Chengelis of the Detroit News. “We still have a lot of big teams to play, we’ve got Notre Dame, ranked team. We have Ohio State, ranked team. So, there’s still plenty of opportunity to be able to go out and finish the season great.”
Michigan actually showed its fight Saturday night in Happy Valley. Despite trailing 21-0 early — and appearing to be on the way to another blowout — the Wolverines clawed back into the game, having a chance to tie things up late in the contest.
For that effort, linebacker Khaleke Hudson said he was proud of his teammates.
“We came together to say ‘we’re gonna keep fighting for the team. We’re gonna do whatever we gotta do, fight, scratch and claw to come out with the victory,'” Hudson said after the game. “I’m really proud of the offense and I’m also really proud of our defense how we came out in the second half. But, unfortunately, we didn’t come out on top.
“We just gotta move on. We can’t change it to a victory for us. Only thing we can do is go back to the lab, fix our mistakes and come back out stronger next week versus Notre Dame.”
Michigan’s tough schedule doesn’t get any easier with games against Notre Dame, Michigan State and Ohio State still remaining. And the team will be under heavy scrutiny the rest of the way, after falling to 5-2 on Saturday night.
How the Wolverines come out next week against Notre Dame should be very telling about the mentality of this team.
Dustin grew up in the heart of Big Ten country and has been in sports media since 2010. He has been covering Big Ten football since 2014. You can follow him on Twitter: @SchutteCFB